


With Regard to Little Brothers

by makiyakinabe



Category: Kekkaishi
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, also original canon characters who are manga-only, warning: verbosity and zero dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-25
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-13 17:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1235647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makiyakinabe/pseuds/makiyakinabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>third time's the charm <del>whoops spoilers</del></p>
    </blockquote>





	With Regard to Little Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> third time's the charm ~~whoops spoilers~~

  1. Ougi Saburou came into the world a little brother. 

 

* * *

 

  2. His sentiments apropos this were, despite any and all beliefs to the contrary, completely neutral. To Saburou, the title and the manner in which it befell him were but mere demonstrations of the way the world worked, not unlike the sun that only ever rises from the east and how leaving a book open, face down will always, always damage its spine. 

 

* * *

 

  3. Although it must be said that ‘having no problem being a little brother’ by no means equated ‘not wanting to gain one, so as to retain status quo’. Indeed, the first time he received news of kaa-san’s pregnancy, he did so with all eagerness and no fuss. Ichirou-nii looked so pleased whenever he was addressed as such that Saburou couldn’t help but anticipate experiencing the same for himself. 

 

* * *

 

  4. This was, of course, before he actually came into contact with the newly-named Shirou. A little over three hours post-delivery, Saburou and his older brothers were let into kaa-san’s bedchamber, at her faceturn to the side approaching the crib with nary a sound. At first glimpse Shirou could not have looked more innocuous if he tried: the infant was tiny, stared back unblinking and had the entirety of his thumb stuck in his mouth. It wasn’t until Saburou—due to an unsensible mixture of curiosity and yet-unchecked impulsiveness—allowed his index finger to fall into Shirou’s grasping hands, that he learnt of the folly of taking first impressions as absolutes. 

 

* * *

 

  5. One would think, having spent enough time around Shirou to know him for the miscreant he was, that the prospect of having another little brother to mind would surely deal a heavy blow to Saburou’s mood. As it so happened, however, this was not even remotely the case. The declaration from okaa-san was answered with silence, the slight widening of eyes and the seed of an idea that would worm its way into his head bit by bit, unnoticed until it was too late. By then Saburou was convinced that this child, the one who was to be named Gorou, would be different: he would be all that Shirou was not and none that the other in reality was. Nobody under the sun could have induced Saburou to believe otherwise, himself the least of all. 

 

* * *

 

  6. By the time of the next pregnancy he’d been a big brother of eight years, contemplated a hundred times over the definition of the ideal little brother, its existence as well as deficiency thereof. The conclusion he’d reached was as follows: there was but one requisite to being the ideal little brother, and that was to give unto the older brother the respect that was his due. Saburou, having found the fulfillment of this requirement to be as effortless as breathing, had initially not thought it needed to exist at all. This had been his first mistake—he had been operating under the supposition that he and Shirou, then Gorou were one and the same when they were, in fact, not. They were not, and would probably never be little brothers to him the way he was to Ichirou-nii and Jirou-nii: the ideal for which he was looking for had not existed, and may well never will. Saburou had been on the verge conciling himself to the notion, disagreeable though it was, when he was invited to peer down at the crib in okaa-sama’s room for the third time. 

 

* * *

 

  7. When the time came for him to put his life in writing, this was the place at which he would end, at least with regard to little brothers: the character, having attained after much hardship that which he’d been seeking, learned to appreciate it all the more as a result. It would’ve made the perfect ending—even more so had reality actually mirrored Saburou’s sentiment. As it were, while he may have found his ideal little brother in Rokurou, the same had not applied to both chichi-ue and haha-ue. The requirements they had of Rokurou-kun shared so few similarities with that of his own that it was only logical that they’d try again. And again, and again… and again. It was all very understandable and who was Saburou to think otherwise, except that he did. Here was the little brother he wished for, chichi-ue and haha-ue the son: they should have been content, and yet they were… not.




End file.
